THE  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE. 

THE  LIBRARY 
OF  THE 

UUivroqTY  0P  IUIM0IS 

AN  ADDRESS 

delivered  at 

Wellesley  College, 

BY 

Rev.  NOAH  PORTER,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

|  t  %  o 


TUTTLE 


UNIVERSITY  OF 
ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 
AT  URBANA  CHAMPAIGN 
BOOKSTACKS 


THE  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE; 

- -  ^  Cl  Iv0  0(;l< 

i  v  /f  C?  L 


AN  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  AT 


Wellesley  College, 


Rev.  NOAH  PORTER,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

HVTs iy  Z2r7ti±,  1880, 


AT  THE 


Laying  of  the  Corner-Stone  of  Stone  Hall. 


Boston: 

Frank  Wood,  Printer,  352  Washington  St. 
1880. 


377 

P?34c 


Mrs.  Stone’s  Gift. 


By  the  decease  of  her  husband,  Mr.  Daniel  P.  Stone,  of  Malden, 
Mass.,  Aug.  14,  1878,  Mrs.  Valeria  G.  Stone  came  into  possession  of 
an  estate  amounting  to  about  two  millions  of  dollars. 

Recognizing  herself  as  the  servant  of  Him  to  whom  the  silver 
and  the  gold  belong,  she  began  at  once  to  inquire  for  the  wisest 
modes  of  using,  in  the  promotion  of  human  good  and  the  upbuilding 
of  the  Redeemer's  cause,  the  large  property  which  the  affectionate 
confidence  of  her  husband  had  committed  to  her  disposal.  -She 
called  to  her  side  a  relative  in  whose  judgment  she  confided,  and 
asked  his  counsel  and  advice.  In  accordance  with  suggestions  made 
she  decided  to  devote  a  large  part  of  her  inheritance  to  the  work 
of  Christian  education ;  and  various  colleges  and  seminaries  in 
different  parts  of  our  land  were  selected  as  worthy  recipients  of 
her  aid. 

Among  these  she  was  especially  interested  in  Wellesley  College, 
as  an  institution  for  the  best  training  of  her  own  sex,  not  merely  in 
mental  culture,  but  also  in  Christian  character.  Learning  that  the 
rapid  growth  of  the  College  had  made  an  additional  building 
necessary  for  its  largest  success,  she  appropriated  the  sum  of 
$100,000  for  the  construction  and  ’furnishing  of  such  a  building. 


4 


The  work  was  soon  begun,  and  by  the  latter  part  of  May  in  the 
present  year,  was  sufficiently  advanced  for  the  formal  laying  of  the 
corner-stone. 

The  public  exercises  at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  were 
held  on  the  27th  of  May,  1880,  in  the  Chapel  of  Wellesley  College. 

The  services  commenced  with  prayer,  offered  by  Rev.  P.  A. 
Chadbourn'e,  President  of  Williams  College.  Rev.  Bradford  K. 
Peirce,  of  Boston,  read  the  Scripture  lesson.  The  Bible  used  was 
a  copy  of  the  “  Vulgate,”  dated  in  1544,  once  owned  and  used  by 
Philip  Melancthon.  This  valuable  memento  of  the  great  reformer, 
enriched  by  his  autograph  notes,  had  been  lately  presented  to  the 
College,  to  be  used  on  this  occasion. 

Rev.  William  H.  Willcox,  as  the  representative  of  Mrs.  Stone,, 
then  read  the 


DEED  OF  GIFT  FROM  MRS.  STONE. 


Whereas  my  late  husband,  Daniel  Perkins  Stone,  of  Malden,  Mass., 
was  pleased  to  express  his  affection  and  confidence  in  me  by  committing 
to  my  disposal  the  large  fortune  he  had  accumulated,  it  is  my  desire,  as  a 
servant  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  devote  a  portion  of  this  inheritance  to 
the  higher  and  distinctively  Christian  education  of  my  own  sex.  I  have 
therefore  selected  Wellesley  College  as  a  most  worthy  recipient,  and  set 
apart  the  sum  of  One  Hundred  Thousand  Dollars  for  erecting  and  furnish¬ 
ing  an  additional  building  for  the  use  of  this  institution.  I  desire  that,  in 
honor  of  my  deceased  husband,  it  shall  bear  the  name  of  “  Stone  Hall.”* 
What  its  special  use  at  any  particular  time  shall  be  the  Trustees  of  the 
College  may  determine,  as  the  needs  of  the  institution  shall  seem  to 
require ;  but  whatever  it  may  be,  I  wish  the  building  to  be  always  regarded 
and  used  as  one  that  has  been  sacredly  consecrated  to  the  promotion  of 
a  truly  Christian  education  and  the  development  of  Christian  character 
and  life. 


5 


It  is  my  hope  and  prayer  that  the  young  ladies  who  in  the  coming 
years  may.  enjoy  the  benefits  of  “Stone  Hall,”  may  learn,  as  the  most  im¬ 
portant  of  all  lessons,  to  become  noble  Christian  women,  and  devote  their 
powers  and  their  attainments  to  earnest  lives  of  Christian  usefulness.  I 
have  often  and  sadly  observed  the  pitiable  worthlessness,  both  to  them¬ 
selves  and  others,  of  the  lives  of  women  when  given  up  to  selfish  frivolity, 
or  wasted  in  the  pursuit  of  mere  personal  enjoyment.  And  often,  too,  have 
I  noted,  with  admiration  and  gratitude  to  God,  the  saintly  beauty  and  benefi¬ 
cent  power  of  the  lives  of  truly  Christian  women  whose  learning  has  been 
too  genuine  for  skeptical  conceit,  and  whose  refinement  has  been  too  thor¬ 
ough  for  fastidious  selfishness;  but  whose  highest  aim  has  been  simply  to 
do,  faithfully  and  cheerfully,  the  work  which  God,  in  his  providence,  had 
assigned  them,  wherever  and  whatever  it  might  be.  Such  are  the  women 
whom,  for  their  own  sake  and  the  world’s,  I  most  earnestly  desire  to  aid  in 
training, —  women  who  will  always  regard  a  symmetrical  Christian  character 
as  the  most  radiant  crown  of  womanhood,  and  a  life  spent  in  humble  imita¬ 
tion  of  Him  who  “came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,”  as  the 
noblest  of  all  aims. 

With  this  expression  of  my  wish  and  prayer,  and  with  the  earnest  hope 
that  these  views  may  always  find  active  sympathy  in  those  to  whom  the 
work  of  instruction  in  Wellesley  College  shall  be  intrusted,  I  hereby,  with 
gratitude  to  God  for  the  power  and  the  opportunity,  commit  to  the 
Trustees  “Stone  Hall,”  erected  and  furnished,  as  a  sacred  trust,  to  be 
held  and  used  by  them  for  the  purpose  indicated  —  the  Christian  education 
of  women  for  their  more  efficient  service  of  the  world  and  of  God. 

VALERIA  G.  STONE. 


Signed  and  sealed  in  the  } 
presence  of  Wm,  H.  Willcox.  j 


6 


The  following  hymn,  written  for  the  occasion  by  Rev;  S.  F. 
Smith,  author  of  “America,”  was  then  sung  by  the  Choir  of  the  Eliot 
Church,  of  Newton:  — 

FOUNDED  ON  CHRIST. 

Founded  on  Christ,  —  this  placid  lake, 

This  glorious  garniture  of  hills, 

Yearns  a  new  offering  to  make 

To  him,  whose  praise  creation  fills. 

Founded  on  Christ,  —  then  strong  and  fair 
Turret  and  battlement  shall  rise; 

Kissed  by  the  sweet,  transparent  air, 

And  canopied  by  azure  skies. 

Founded  on  Christ,  —  his  love  shall  gild 
The  advancing  work  with  matchless  grace, 

And  learning’s  willing  hands  shall  build 
A  'temple  sacred  to  his  praise. 

As  sunset  clouds,  in  glory  dressed, 

Gather  to  form  night’s  regal  throne, 

And  the  red  sun  behind  the  west, 

Lights  up  the  splendor  all  its  own, — 

So  in  each  deed  our  hands  have  wrought, 

Beams  forth  His  glory,  his,  alone  ; 

So  be  each  work,  and  plan,  and  thought 
Founded  on  Christ,  our  corner-stone. 


Rev.  Mark  Hopkins,  ex-president  of  Williams  College,  offered 
prayer;  after  which  President  Porter,  of  Yale  College,  who  is  also 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Wellesley  College,  delivered 
the  address.  After  the  conclusion  of  President  Porter's  address 
the  company  repaired  to  the  site  of  Stone  Hall.  Mr.  Willcox 
placed  a  Bible  in  the  corner-stone,  and  then  laid  it  in  due  form. 
The  public  proceedings  closed  with  prayer  by  President  Chadbourne. 


ADDRESS. 


Wellesley  College  was  founded  avowedly  as  a  Christian  college.  All 
its  endowments  and  arrangements  have  been  inspired  and  controlled  by  the 
definite  purpose  that  the  education  imparted  here  should  be  emphatically 
Christian.  While  its  plan  proposed  that  in  scientific  knowledge  and  literary 
cultureit  should  be  behind  no  other  college  of  its  kind,  and  that  art  should 
do  its  utmost  to  lend  grace  and  beauty  to  science  and  letters,  it  also  pro¬ 
vided  that  Christ  should  be  supremely  recognized  as  the  example  and  inspi¬ 
ration  of  all  human  excellence  —  as  the  guide  of  the  present,,  and  the  hope 
of  the  future,  life  —  as  the  Redeemer  and  Lord  of  each  individual  soul  and 
of  the  human  race. 

As  it  is  now  to  be  enlarged  in  its  proportions,  perhaps  toward  the  ideal 
of  a  university,  it  is  as  distinctly  understood  that  this  ideal  will  remain 
as  positively  Christian  as  at  first. 

It  is  no  new  thing  in  this  country  that  colleges  and  universities  should 
be  founded  upon  this  theory.  All  the  older  colleges  were  originally  estab¬ 
lished  in  the  interest  of  Christianity  and  the  Church,  the  Church  being 
conceived  as  providing  for  every  interest  and  relation  of  human  society. 
Most  of  our  recent  higher  institutibns,  with  a  few  notable  and  well-known 
exceptions,  have  been  founded  in  a  similar  spirit. 

In  the  older  countries  the  same,  till  of  late,  has  been  emphatically  true. 
Within  a  few  years,  however,  both  in  the  old  countries  and  the  new,  another 


8 


theory  has  found  many  advocates,  and  been  embodied  in  a  few  colleges  and 
universities.  This  theory,  which  may  be  called  the  secular,  as  contrasted 
with  the  Christian,  is  briefly  this  :  — 

“  Education  of  every  grade,  and  preeminently  of  the  highest,  to  be  con¬ 
summate,  must  be  free  from  all  alliances  with  religion.  It  must  forswear  any 
allegiance  to  the  Christian  creed,  and  dispense  with  positive  Christian  influ¬ 
ences.  While  it  may  accept  the  fruits  of  Christian  civilization,  so  far  as 
Science  and  Letters,  Art  and  Culture,  Law  and  Morality  have  taken  these 
into  the  general  life,  it  will  best  do  its  appropriate  work,  and  even  best  serve 
Christianity  itself,  if  it  leaves  all  positive  Christian  teaching  and  training  to 
the  household  and  the  Church.” 

I  propose  at  this  time  to  explain  and  defend  the  old  theory  as  contrasted 
with  the  new — the  theory  on  which  this  College  stands,  and  which  it  pro¬ 
poses  to  exemplify. 

I  must  assume,  first  of  all,  that  Christianity  is  true  as  a  history ;  that  it 
is  supernatural  in  its  import ;  that  it  is  of  supreme  importance  to  every 
individual  man  and  the  human  race,  and  that  to  both,  Christ,  in  his  life,  his 
death  and  his  advancing  kingdom,  is  to  become  more  a  manifested  neces¬ 
sity  and  a  conspicuous  power,  till  what  seems  the  brilliant  romances  of 
prophecy  shall  become  the  sober  facts  of  history.  The  man  who  believes 
all  this  of  Christianity  and  of  Christ,  wTould  seem  to  be*  compelled  to  believe 
that  in  the  progress  of  society  towards  this  consummation,  the  appliances 
of  education  must  inevitably  be  molded  more  completely  and  confessedly 
by  the  power  of  Him  who  shall  subdue  all  things  to  himself. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  reasoner  who  holds  that  the  Christian  history  is 
largely  fabulous  or  exaggerated,  and  that  the  supernatural  in  it  is  impossible, 
must  conclude  that  the  morning-star  which  ushered  in  its  dawn  must  give 
way  before  the  risen  sun  of  science  and  culture.  The  man  who  half 
believes,  or  who  even  surmises,  that  positive  Christianity  cannot  stand  before 
modern  science  and  modern  criticism,,  must  conclude  that  Christianity 
ought  to  have  little  prominence  in  that  education  which  will  very  soon 
permit  it  to  have  no  place  in  scientific  belief.  All  those  who  hold  these 
views,  either  as  misgivings  or  conclusions,  are  thoroughly  consistent  in 


9 


excluding  Christianity  from  every  college  and  university,  or  in  providing  for 
its  gradual  and  decorous  retreat  with  appropriate  honors. 

It  is,  then,  of  prime  importance  that  every  one  who  discusses  the 
question  before  us  should,  first  of  all,  settle  the  question  whether  and  in 
what  sense  he  holds  to  the  supremacy  and  permanence  of  Christianity. 
With  those  wbo  deny  or  half  believe  that  Christianity  is  supernatural  and 
permanent,  we  can  hold  no  argument,  for  they  have  already  decided  the 
question  at  issue.  We  can  only  address  ourselves  to  those  who  believe  in 
Christianity  as  permanent  and  divine,  but  yet  honestly  question  whether, 
in  the  present  condition  of  our  higher  schools  of  learning  and  of  Christianity 
itself,  it  is  either  wise  or  practicable  any  longer  to  make  these  schools 
distinctively  and  earnestly  Christian. 

I  have  spoken  of  my  topic  as  a  question,  and  the  discussion  of  it  as 
an  argument,  and,  it  may  be,  a  criticism  or  a  refutation  of  dissentient  or 
opposing  views.  I  do  not,  however,  propose  to  make  this  discussion  con¬ 
troversial,  or  even  critical.  I  would  rather  seek  to  portray,  in  positive 
form,  the  ideal  Christian  college  in  its  aims,  and  the  conditions  of  their 
realization.  Should  this  ideal  portraiture  bring  out,  by  contrast,  the  defects 
and  limitations  of  those  institutions  which  approach  nearest  to  this  ideal, 
the  portraiture  may  be  none  the  less  salutary  and  inspiring.  I  shall  aim, 
however,  to  show,  also,  that  this  ideal  ought  to  be  made  real.  It  is  the 
glory  of  Christianity  that  it  presents  the  noblest  of  ideals.  It  is  none  the 
less  its  glory  that  it  inspires  men  with  courage  and  self-sacrifice  to  turn 
these  ideals  into  facts. 

I  observe,  i,  That  the  ideal  Christian  college  should  continue  and  sup¬ 
plement  the  functions  of  the  family  and  the  Church.  If  the  family  and  the 
Church  should  be  Christian,  the  college,  for  similar  reasons,  should  also  be 
Christian.  Christianity  presupposes  the  family  and  the  Church.  It  finds 
men  with  a  home  and  a  temple  of  some  sort.  It  roots  itself  in  the  one, 
and  expands  itself  within  the  other,  purifying  and  elevating  both.  While  it 
addresses  man  as  an  individual,  it  presupposes  that  he  draws  much  of  his 
life  from  his  social  relations.  Society  implies  letters  and  laws  and  manners 
and  morals;  religion,  that  God  is  manifested  through  nature,  and,  perhaps, 


IO 


in  history.  Society  and  religion  presuppose  schools  —  which  can  do  more 
than  home  or  neighborhood  in  teaching  language  and  history,  science  and 
art.  The  Church,  in  its  way,  is  also  a  school,  in  which  religious  truth 
is  defended,  explained  and  applied  to  the  duties  of  this  life  and  the  hopes 
of  the  next.  Had  there  been  no  patriarchs,  no  lawgivers,  no  scribes,  no 
schools  of  the  prophets,  no  synagogues,  there  had  been  no  Christ,  no 
cross  and  no  redemption. 

The  college  trains  and  teaches  the  young  on  a  still  higher  scale  than 
the  family  or  the  Church.  If  the  elementary  instruction  of  the  lower 
should  be  positively  Christian,  why  should  not  that  of  the  higher?  Look¬ 
ing  at  this  question  from  a  Christian  standpoint  we  can  give  but  one  answer: 
the  school  of  the  highest  grade  should  be  emphatically  and  positively 
Christian.  That  it  should  be  wisely  Christian  need  not  be  suggested; 
that  it  should  not  undo  by  overdoing  is  self-evident;  but  that  Christian 
aims  should  animate  and  control  its  life  is  equally  manifest.  That  the 
realization  of  these  aims  involves  peculiar  difficulties  we  do  not  deny;  that 
it  may  call  for  special  sagacity  is  very  likely ;  that  it  may  provoke  many 
conflicts  about  reason  and  faith,  and  right  and  wrong  in  conduct  and  char¬ 
acter,  is  not  only  probable,  but  certain.  Similar  difficulties  occur  in  the 
family,  the  dame  school  and  the  Church;  but  that  Christianity  should 
found  colleges,  and  seek  to  animate  them  with  its  fundamental  faiths 
and  its  spirit,  seems  at  first  as  natural  and  necessary  as  that  it  should  seek 
to  animate  the  family  and  the  Church  with  its  truth  and  its  life. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  influence  of  the  one  is  but  a  prolonga¬ 
tion  of  the  influence  of  the  others.  To  the  college  student  and  the  scholar, 
the  story  of  the  Gospels  that  has  been  read  in  the  home  or  heard  at  the 
church,  must  take  its  place  as  true  or  false  in  the  long  rolls  of  general 
history  which  every  student  must  learn  to  accept  or  reject  with  some  meas¬ 
ure  of  instructed  judgment.  The  speculative  conceptions  of  God,  of  duty 
and  immortality,  of  government,  law  and  religion,  of  the  origination  of  the 
earth  and  the  spirit  of  man,  which  the  educated  men  must  formally  accept 
or  reject,  are  necessarily  theistic  or  atheistic.  They  must  be  consistent  or 
inconsistent  with  the  Christian  creed.  The  practical  principles,  the  theory 


of  manners  and  of  morals  which  the  student  more  or  less  intelligently 
receives  or  rejects  as  the  living  springs  of  his  own  moral  life,  must  be 
sharply  Christian  or  non-Christian,  or  as  m any-shaded  and  as  inconstant 
as  the  hues  of  the  chameleon,  which  is  colored  by  what  it  chances  to 
feed  on. 

We  confess  that  we  cannot  understand  the  logic  or  the  practical 
wisdom  of  those  who  admit  the  propriety  and  necessity  of  positive  Christian 
influences  in  the  home  and  seminary,  but  would  omit  or  exclude  them  from 
the  college.  The  reason  which  they  give  is  that  the  pupil  is  no  longer  a 
child,  and,  therefore,  should  be  treated  as  a  man.  It  is  true  he  is  no 
longer  a  child,  and,  perhaps,  not  yet  a  youth ;  but  neither  in  character  nor  in 
convictions  has  he  become  a  man.  Moreover,  just  at  this  period  of  life,  of 
all  others,  he  is  doomed  to  pass  through  that  fermenting  and  transition  period 
in  which  he  must  form  for  himself  his  practical  convictions  and  his  theoret¬ 
ical  judgments  in  the  light  of  independent  thought.  It  may  be  that  less  can 
be  done  in  a  formal  way  for  either  at  this  time  than  at  any  other.  It  may 
be,  and  doubtless  is,  true,  that  officious  and  ill-timed  intermeddling  will  do, 
more  harm  than  good;  and  yet,  for  all  that,  there  is  no  time  or  condition 
of  life  in  which  wise  Christian  influences  are  more  needed  or  are  more 
effective  than  when  the  spontaneous  impulses  of  childhood  and  youth  are 
confirmed  or  rejected  by  distinct  acts  of  intelligent  volition  —  the  judgments 
of  the  growing  man.  The  moment  the  youth  enters  a  college,  he  finds 
himself  in  a  new  atmosphere.  Even  if  the  pupil  lodges  and  eats  at  his 
own  home,  the  public  opinion  of  the  college  will  yet  penetrate  into  his 
chamber  with  its  pervasive  and  stimulating  atmosphere.  This  is  trebly 
true  if  his  own  home  is  exchanged  for  a  home  within  the  college,  charged, 
as  this  always  is,  with  the  electric  force  orf  young  and  buoyant  life.  It  may 
be  that  often  the  teacher  is  impotent  to  use  any  direct  moral  or  religious 
influence.  We  know  very  well  that  he  may  often  overdo,  by  ill-timed  zeal 
and  injudicious  obtrusiveness,  and  that,  in  contrast  with  misdirected  speech, 
silence  is  indeed  golden.  But  we  know,  as  well,  that  if  the  teacher’s  own 
character  is  elevated  and  refined  by  Christian  earnestness,  a  single  word 
or  sentiment  that  breaks  this  golden  silence  will  go  further  to  confirm  the 


tf 


oNWtRStrj  w 


12 


halting  faith  or  to  rekindle  the  smouldering  fervor  than  a  sermon  from 
any  preacher  or  a  homily  from  any  exhorter  ;  or,  unhappily,  a  contemptuous 
word  or  sarcastic  utterance  may  rend  the  feeble  fabric  of  a  failing  faith, 
and  poison  the  heart  with  distrust  or  scorn  of  what  is  noble  and  good. 
The  teacher  who  is  worthy  of  the  name  can  reach  the  inner  life  of  his  pupil 
by  what  he  says  and  does,  as  no  other  person  can.  He  can  strengthen 
and  renew  the  springs  of  that  life%  sometimes,  by  a  look  or  a  word,  just  as  it  , 
takes  that  second  adjustment  which  shall  be  final. 

This  is  not  all.  During  his  college  and  university  life  the  pupil  must,  at 
least,  begin  the  critical  revisal  of  his  religious  and  philosophical  creed  in  the 
light  of  all  that  science  and  history  and  philosophy  and  criticism  can  say 
in  their  latest  discoveries  and  reports.  To  the  searching  brightness  of 
these  blazing  lights  the  pupil  must  bring  all  that  he  has  hitherto  received 
without  question.  Into  this  fusing  crucible  he  must  cast  all  his  traditionary 
faiths,  to  receive  them  back  as  they  shall  leap  forth  in  purer  metal  and 
brighter  luster,  or  to  reject  them  as  worthless  dross  or  base  alloy.  He 
cannot  hold  back  these  faiths  from  this  fiery  trial,  though  rooted  in  the  convic¬ 
tions  of  his  father  and  hallowed  by  the  love  and  prayers  of  his  mother,  and 
made  sacred  by  the  aspirations  and  vows  of  his  youth.  He  ought  not  to 
desire  to  do  so.  It  is  better  that  they  should  be  reviewed  and  revised  by 
the  light  of  his  maturing  judgment.  To  withdraw  them  from  this  light 
would  dwarf  his  intellect  and  en/eeble  his  convictions.  It  would  open  a 
widening  and  deepening  chasm  between  his  practical  and  intellectual  life. 

It  would  dishonor  Truth,  which  will  not  submit  to  be  divided.  This  process 
of  adjustment  must  and  ought  to  go  on.  While  it  is  proceeding,  the  college 
or  university  becomes,  of  necessity,  the  church,  and  the  teachers  and  asso¬ 
ciates  are,  for  the  time  being,  priests  and  oracles ;  for  it  is  in  the  light  of 
what  these  attest  and  prove  that  the  old  creed  is  reaffirmed  or  questioned 
or  renounced.  And  what  if  this  church  has  no  religion  and  the  priests  have 
no  consecration?  What,  again,  if  they  are  thoroughly  and  unaffectedly 
Christian  ?  In  these  times  of  crisis  —  and  they  are  always  present  —  a  word 
or  look  from  the  living  teacher ;  a  chance  remark  in  the  one  direction  or 
the  other;  an  earnest  and  candid  spirit,  or  a  scoffing  and  dogmatic  doubt, 


13 


or  the  combined  impression  of  his  intellectual  temper  and  personal  spirit, — 
have,  in  thousands  of  instances,  been  fraught  with  bane  or  blessing  to  his 
confiding  pupils.  Of  many,  in  this  crisis  of  their  spiritual  history,  it  might 
be  said  that  so  far  as  human  counsel  and  help  can  come  at  all  in  this 
critical  and  transition  period,  they  must  come  through  those  intellectual 
activities  which  are  the  absorbing  and  controlling  element  of  the 
student’s  life. 

2.  Christianity  needs  the  college,  to  improve  its  own  spiritual  quality  and 
enlarge  its  attractiveness  and  power.  For  this  reason  the  Christian  college 
is  an  essential  appendage  to  the  Church,  and,  therefore,  ought  to  be  emphati¬ 
cally  Christian.  It  is  now  more  generally  conceded  than  formerly,  that 
education  and  culture  are  essential  to  furnish  armor  for  the  defense  of  the 
Church  and  weapons  for  its  advancement.  It  is  not  so  clearly  recognized 
as  it  ought  to  be  that  both  are  required  for  the  development  of  its  own 
varied  and  highest  perfections.  While  it  is  granted  by  all  that  a  certain 
measure  of  each  is  required  for  the  existence  and  growth  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  it  is  at  the  same  time  feared  by  many  that  too  much  of  either  will 
bring  hindrance,  rather  than  help,  to  the  strength  and  beauty  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  character.  We  hold  the  contrary.  Knowledge  does,  indeed,  bring 
its  temptations  as  truly  as  ignorance.  Culture  may  hinder  Christlikeness 
as  certainly  as  squalor;  but  knowledge  and  culture,  in  their  highest  perfec¬ 
tion,  are  needed  for  the  complete  manifestation  of  what  Christianity  can  do 
for  man.  We  say  nothing,  here,  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  conditions  of 
the  Christian  life;  we  concede  and  contend  that  these  are  indispensable; 
that  it  is  only  the  docile  child,  whether  he  be  a  peasant  or  a  philosopher, 
who  can  enter  —  much  more,  wTho  is  the  greatest  —  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  But  we  also  know  that  the  import  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
in  its  inner  spirit  and  its  external  manifestations,  can  only  be  comprehended 
in  its  full  significance  by  the  most  enlarged  and  best-instructed  mind,  or 
appreciated  by  the  most  refined  #and  cultured  soul.  This  ideal  will  never 
be  perfectly  understood  and  exemplified  until  the  results  of  science  and 
culture  shall  have  been  applied  to  all  the  forms  of  individual  morals  and 
manners,  and  in  all  those  agencies  which  Christian  ethics  and  social 


14 


science  shall  mature  and  put  in  force.  To  such  a  consummation  the 
Christian  college  is  as  necessary  as  Christian  preaching;  the  university 
as  the  Sunday  School;  the  conscientious  culture  of  science,  literature  and 
art  as  the  prayer-meeting  and  the  Bible-reader.  It  will  not  be  till  every 
thought  is  subjected  to  the  obedience  of  Christ,  that  the  tabernacle  of  God 
shall,  indeed,  be  with  men.  The  author  of  the  work  entitled  “  Modern 
Christianity  a  Civilized  Heathenism,”  betrays,  by  its  title,  his  own  narrow 
and  squalid  conceptions  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  book  is  as  vulgar 
and  narrow  as  its  title  is  unchristian,  and  never  could  have  been  conceived 
or  respected  except  in  a  low  condition  of  Christian  enlightenment. 

How  sorely  our  practical  Christianity  needs  to  be  elevated  above  such 
narrow  and  vulgar,  not  to  say  squalid,  conceptions  of  many  of  its  advocates 
and  representatives,  one  hardly  need  suggest.  We  are  forced  to  confess 
that  with  all  that  is  noble  and  Christlike  in  its  spirit,  much  remains  that 
is  hateful  in  its  manners  and  its  morals.  See  the  Church  forgetting  that 
it  should  be  militant  only  against  its  foes,  and  behaving  itself  so  often 
like  a  termagant  in  the  houses  of  its  friends!  Think  of  the  sectarianism 
which  is  its  scandal  and  shame,  of  which  almost  every  village,  from  the 
oldest  to  the  newest,  gives  visible  tokens  in  its  rival  houses  of  worship,  that 
also  betoken  the  hateful  jealousies  of  their  adherents!  Think,  also,  of  its 
hard  and  scholastic  statements  of  doctrine;  of  its  narrow  judgments  of 
character;  of  its  scrimping  parsimony  in  some  directions  and  criminal  luxury 
in  others;  of  the  tenacity  with  which  it  adheres  to  old  errors,  and  the 
credulity  with  which  it  runs  after  the  last  sensationalism  !  And  all  this  while 
how  heedless  is  it  of  the  pure  and  spiritual  example  of  the  patient  Christ, 
who  can  only  say,  “  Ye  know  not  of  what  spirit  ye  are/”  Meanwhile,  the 
plaintive  cry  of  distress  now  and  then  rises  into  the  shriek  of  alarm  — 
“  When  the  Son  of  man  cometh  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?  ”  And,  worst 
of  all,  in  high  places  and  low,  in  the  lanes  and  avenues  of  the  cities,  in 
the  streets  and  lurking-places  of  the  villages,  glaring  frauds  and  brutal 
crime  suggest  the  question,  “  Has  conscience ,  too,  with  faith  in  God,  left 
the  soul  of  man?  ” 

Do  you  ask,  What  might  Christian  culture  do  for  our  individual  and 


15 


public  morals  and  economies,  were  it  rightly  enforced  in  our  colleges,  and 
spread  from  them  through  our  social  life  ?  We  reply,  first,  It  should  give 
us  correct  and  worthy  conceptions  of  Christianity  as  an  historic  phenom¬ 
enon.  It  should  so  effectually  arouse  the  historic  sense  and  quicken  the 
historic  imagination,  that  among  all  the  heroes  of  the  earth  Christ  should 
be  visibly  transfigured,  high  and  lifted  up  ;  and  not  only  Moses  and  Elias 
should  be  there  with  the  well-known  three,  but  Gautama  and  Plato  and 
Marcus  Aurelius  should  also  bow,  with  wonder  and  worship,  and  say,  “It  is 
good  for  us  to  be  here."  This  historic  Christ,  being  seen  in  his  true  place 
and  correct  proportions,  would  be  worshiped  as  the  supernatural  Christ, 
for  the  reason  that  the  philosophy  to  which  Christian  culture  and  science 
would  train,  would  recognize  a  personal  and  living  God  as  a  speculative 
necessity  ;  and  such  a  theism  would  find  no  contradiction  between  his  im¬ 
manent  direction  of  those  laws  of  nature  which  he  conserves,  and  those 
manifestations  of  his  presence  which  flash  forth  when  he  breaks  the 
circuit  and  makes  himself  felt  in  creation  or  miracle,  or  in  the  gentler 
methods  of  that  providence  which  answers  trust  and  prayer.  Such  a 
theory  of  history  and  of  God  would  find  it  easy  to  accept  the  historic 
Christ,  when  seen  in  the  light  of  his  finished  work,  to  be  none  other 
than  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  Such  a  manifestation  would  necessarily 
suppose  some  need  which  it  was  designed  to  meet,  and  some  import  which 
meets  it  fully.  Such  a  statement  of  import  and  need  involves  a  creed 
which  will  be  more  or  less  sharp  according  to  the  capacity  of  men  to  dis¬ 
tinguish  and  define ;  and  more  or  less  varied  and  flexible  according  to  the 
changes  of  philosophy  and  language.  In  this  way  an  enlightened  Christianity 
would  be  doctrinal,  because  it  is  a  rational  Christianity,  and  must  connect  its 
Christian  truths  with  those  underlying  principles  with  which  human  specu¬ 
lation  has  always  concerned  itself.  But  it  would  not  be  rationalistic  in  the 
offensive  sense  of  the  term,  because  it  is  too  enlightened  not  to  recognize 
the  limits  of  human  logic  and  the  authority  of  testimony  and  faith,  especially 
when  personality  and  the  supernatural  are  concerned.  It  would  not  and 
could  not  be  dogmatic,  however,  in  the  scholastic  sense,  for  it  could  not  fail 
to  remember  that  the  chief  value  of  doctrine  is  to  reveal  and  emphasize 


i6 


the  personal  Christ,  and  that  abstract  formulae  take  feeble  hold  of  the 
feelings  and  the  life. 

But  all  the  studies  of  the  enlightened  scholar  would  enforce  the  one  truth 
that  Christianity  is  a  great  practical  power,  and  that  in  this  lies  its  chief 
interest  in  the  past  and  for  the  future.  In  the  light  of  this  absorbing  and 
overwhelming  relation  he  finds  little  interest  in  it  as  a  subject  of  curious 
and  critical  detail,  or  of  metaphysical  hair-splitting  and  fiery  controversy. 
He  cares  for  it  most  of  all,  because  it  is  destined  for  use,  and  inquires 
how  its  energies  may  be  largely  increased  and  its  capacities  may  be  most 
successfully  applied.  Hence,  an  intelligent  and  instructed  Christianity 
must  be  evangelistic  and  missionary  in  its  spirit.  It  cannot  but  go  out 
into  the  highways  and  hedges ;  it  must  devise  missions  of  all  sorts  to  the 
poor  and  neglected  at  home  —  to  the  idolatrous  and  superstitious  across 
the  seas.  There  prevails  at  present  a  strong  tendency  to  believe  that 
success  in  evangelistic  work  is  reserved  for  men  of  limited  reading  and 
ordinary  associations,  because  their  hearts  and  minds  are  supposed  to  be 
nearer  to  those  of  the  people.  Facts  by  no  means  justify  this  conclusion. 
Christian  history  testifies  most  abundantly  that  evangelistic  and  missionary 
zeal  have  been  kindled  and  renewed  nowhere  so  constantly  as  in  Chris¬ 
tian  colleges,  and  that  men  trained  in  the  universities  have  found  a 
most  efficient  preparation  in  classical  and  scientific  study  for  using  plain 
speech  and  popular  illustrations  with  the  greatest  effect  among  both  pagan 
and  Christian  heathens.  The  annals  of  English  and  American  colleges 
abound  with  the  names  of  men  — some  of  their  brightest  —  who  have  been 
thus  distinguished.  Many  a  thoughtful  scholar,  while  studying  the  history 
of  the  Church  and  meditating  on  the  needs  of  men,  has  heard  the  ques¬ 
tion  addressed  to  himself,  “  Whom  shall  /  send)  and  who  will  go  for  us?” 
and  has  responded,  with  trembling  yet  confident  voice,  “  Here  am  I;  send 
me An  instructed  Christianity  cannot  but  be  practical;  and  a  practical 
Christianity  must  be  evangelistic  and  missionary  in  its  spirit. 

An  instructed  Christianity  must  also  be  catholic  and  unsectarian. 
The  Christian  college,  almost  of  necessity,  trains  its  pupils  to  enlarged  and 
liberal  views  of  things  non-essential,  and  to  a  catholic  appreciation  of 


1 7 


things  that  are  common.  Narrowness  of  views  tends  to  the  exaggeration 
of  things  that  are  less  important,  and  the  over-valuation  of  limited  interests. 
As  the  student  follows  the  great  movements  of  the  hosts  of  God’s  chosen 
in  the  past,  their  minor  subdivisions  are  lost  sight  of  in  the  movements 
of  the  mass  ;  their  variously  colored  banners  seem  to  blend  into  one 
cloud  of  prismatic  light ;  wdiile  the  separate  watchword  of  each  division 
swells  into  one  harmonious  war-cry  of  courage  and  victory.  Under  the 
enlightened  judgment  which  a  liberal  training  fosters,  an  uncatholic  spirit 
is  impossible.  It  does  not  suffice  to  assert  that  some  colleges  which  have 
called  themselves  Christian  have  been  the  last  hiding-places  of  bigotry 
and  the  inveterate  nurseries  of  •  sectarianism.  Such  institutions  are  not 
usually  eminently  Christian,  or  eminent  for  liberal  science  or  culture. 

For  the  future  application  of  Christianity  to  public  and  private 
economics  —  that  department  which  must  soon  be  occupied,  and  ought  to 
be  directed  by  the  Christian  Church  —  we  must  look  to  the  higher  schools 
of  learning  for  the  improvement  of  the  aims  and  quality  of  our  Christian 
activity.  These  schools  should  be  the  first  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
community  to  its  duties  and  opportunities  in  every  sphere  of  political  and 
social  life.  An  atheistic  sociology  may  go  before  us  with  its  narrower 
vision  and  its  emphatic  affirmations  of  those  conclusions  which  experience 
has  established,  but  it  will  do  scant  justice  to  the  higher  elements  in  human 
nature,  and  can  recognize  no  beneficent  Providence.  Consequently  its 
theories  must  be  untrustworthy  if  not  erroneous.  In  motives  to  action  and 
hope  it  cannot  compare  with  the  system  which  believes  in  a  future  king¬ 
dom  of  God  that  shall  be  built  up  under  the  guidance  of  an  Almighty  power, 
and  shall  be  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  human  society  transformed,  by 
means  of  social  agencies,  into  a  tabernacle  in  which  God  shall,  indeed,  dwell 
with  men  and  wipe  away  all  tears  from  all  eyes. 

3.  On  the  other  hand,  the  college  should  be  Christian  in  order  to 
elevate  and  improve  the  quality  of  our  science  and  culture.  We  have  seen 
that  Christianity  owes  much  to  both.  We  proceed  to  show  that  they  owe 
much  to  Christianity.  Christianity,  i.  e .,  Christian  education,  enlarges  and 
elevates  science,  while  it  inspires  and  refines  culture.  We  are  so  accustomed 


to  talk  of  science  and  culture  as  separate  agencies,  that  we  forget  that  they 
only  represent  the  theories  and  convictions,  the  aspirations  and  imaginative 
power  of  living  man.  We  insensibly  conceive  of  them  as  natural  agents  or 
cosmic  forces  acting  under  impersonal  laws.  The  very  current  use  of 
such  phrases  as  the  time-spirit,  the  laws  of  progress,  evolution  and  devel¬ 
opment,  tends  to  deepen  this  impression.  The  necessary  filiation  of  all 
scientific  thinking  which  is  occasioned  by  the  limitations  of  the  activity  of 
a  single  individual  and  a  single  age,  together  with  the.  unchanging  nature 
of  the  laws  under  which  men  classify  and  reason,  confirm  these  ways  of 
thinking.  The  new  theories  of  materialistic  and  metaphysical  develop¬ 
ment  which  sink  the  individual  soul  into  an  aggregate  of  material  particles, 
and  sublimate  God  into  a  metaphysical  formula,  carry  with  them  the 
conclusion  that  science  and  culture  have  a  self-moving  force  which  is 
independent  of  personal  activity  or  emotion,  and,  of  course,  is  unaffected 
by  religious  belief  or  inspiration.  The  actual  history  of  science  and 
culture  is  a  refutation  of  these  conceptions.  Both  are  the  workmanship 
of  living  men,  the  joint  products  of  their  individual  freedom,  and  of  the 
education  and  opportunities  of  the  men  who  went  before  and  who  lived 
with  them.  The  result  is,  truth  and  beauty  as  reflected  in  the  individual 
minds,  and  accepted  by  the  consenting  and  approving  generations,  of 
individual  souls.  But  what  the  individual  soul  shall  be  is  determined  very 
largely  by  its  religious  creed  and  aspirations. 

A  few  examples  may  suffice  to  show  what  we  mean,  and  to  confirm  its 
truth.  The  speculative  thinking  of  modern  times  is  represented  by  such 
names  as  Descartes,  Spinoza,  Locke,  Leibnitz,  Hume,  Rousseau,  Reid, 
Adam  Smith,  Kant,  Schelling,  Hamilton,  Hegel,  Comte,  Mill  and  Spencer. 

Modern  physics  is  represented  by  Newton,  Brewster,  Young,  Davy, 
Faraday,  Tyndall,  Helmholtz,  Herschell,  Kirchhoff,  and  a  multitude  more. 
Modern  culture,  by  a  still  greater  host;  such  as  Cowper,  Byron,  Words¬ 
worth,  Coleridge,  Goethe,  Schiller,  Tennyson,  Macaulay,  Carlyle,  Emerson 
and  Matthew  Arnold.  In  speculative  philosophy  —  which  would  seem  to 
be  most  withdrawn  from  personal  influences  —  nothing  is  more  obvious  than 
that  the  personal  faith  of  each  leader  of  thought  has  been  a  potent  factor 


19 


in  determining  the  range  of  the  philosophical  relations  which  he  recognized, 
and  the  relative  place  which  he  assigned  them  in  his  system.  The  mys¬ 
tical  skepticism  of  Kant;  the  semi-Christian  pantheism  of  Schleermacher ; 
the  decorous  conformity  of  Locke;  the  keen  pyrrhonism  of  Hume,  and 
the  confident  and  imposing  agnosticism  of  Spencer, —  reveal  quite  as 
much  of  the  individual  personality  of  each  of  these  men  as  of  any 
plastic  energy  in  their  environment.  Of  the  physics  of  modern  times 
we  may  say,  truly,  that  they  have  been  formed  very  largely  by  the  per¬ 
vading  influence  of  that  monotheism  —  that  Christian  doctrine  of  a  living 
and  personal  God  which  Christianity  has  made -the  faith  of  Europe.  We 
might  show,  also,  that  aside  from  logic  and  mathematics, —  which  were 
the  gifts  of  ancient  thought,  —  our  modern  metaphysics  and  physics,  our 
physiology  and  psychology,  our  ethics  and  politics,  our  jurisprudence  and 
our  social  science,  are  the  products  of  the  Christian  faith  and  of  Chris¬ 
tian  ideas.  When  we  turn  to  literature,  we  need  only  ask  the  question, 
Where  were  our  Dante  and  Milton,  our  Spenser  and  Shakespeare,  our 
Scott  and  Coleridge,  our  Goethe  and  Schiller,  our  Tennyson  and  George 
Eliot,  had  there  been  no  personal  faith  in  the  story  of  the  supernatural 
Christ,  and  no  kindling  and  unexhausted  pathos  in  his  life  and  death  ? 

More  than  this  is  true :  we  fearlessly  assert  that  in  every  Christian 
nation  in  connection  with  every  great  advance  in  science  and  letters  in 
modern  life,  and  generally  preceding  it,  there  has  been  an  awakening  of 
religious  faith  and  a  revival  of  spiritual  fervor,  and  that  every  such  excite¬ 
ment  has  given  the  nation  and  generation  a  new  and  a  more  ardent  intel¬ 
lectual  life.  We  know,  from  our  own  observation  and  in  our  own  time,  that 
the  moment  when  Christian  truth  takes  a  strong  hold  of  any  gifted  soul,  it 
invariably  gives  to  what  men  call  genius,  unwonted  energy  of  imagination 
and  emotional  power.  Not  unfrequently  it  works  like  inspiration  in  a  soul 
reputed  narrow  and  dull,  it  so  increases  the  range  and  strength  of  its 
thinking,  and  kindles  such  new  aspirations!  Let  but  the  breath  of  God 
at  any  time  move  a  college  of  gifted  youth  to  the  beginnings  or  the 
renewal  of  the  Christian  life, —  especially  if  the  community  had  been  aban¬ 
doned  to  atheistic  death  or  epicurean  frivolity  or  selfish  culture, —  and  it  will 


20 


reveal  an  intellectual  energy  that  was  before  unthought  of.  We  do  not 
say  that  Christianity  can  of  itself  create  or  inspire  genius,  though,  in  some 
cases,  it  has  almost  seemed  to  do  this;  but  we  do  say  that,  other  things 
being  equal,  it  has  enormous  resources  of  creative  energy,  and  that  for 
quickening  power  nothing  can  take  its  place.  We  assert,  also,  that  the 
atheistic  tendencies  of  modern  science,  and  the  frivolous  but  decorous 
temper  of  our  modern  culture,  would  effectually  dry  into  barrenness  and 
comparative  impotence  the  youth  of  any  college  in  which  they  should  rule, 
were  it  not  for  the  counteracting  influence  of  the  healthier  faith  of  the 
community  without.  This  leads  us  to  observe :  — 

4.  That  a  vigorous  Christianity  is  required  in  our  colleges  and  univer¬ 
sities  to  counteract  and  overcome  the  tendencies  which  are  active  in  the 
science  and  culture  of  our  time.  These  tendencies  are  the  natural 
outgrowth  of  science  and  culture  when  pursued  for  selfish  ends,  and  uncon¬ 
trolled  by  the  higher  aims  of  religion  and  love  to  man.  Science  stimulates 
and  rewards  the  love  of  power.  It  tasks  individual  effort,  and  rewards  it 
with  the  pleasure  of  interpreting  nature’s  secrets,  of  understanding  her  laws 
and  imitating  or  sympathizing  with  her  skill.  So  long  as  science  recognizes 
these  powers  and  laws  as  the  thoughts  and  actings  of  God,  so  long  does  she 
open  the  gateway  to  worship  and  faith.  So  long  as  her  devotee  is  trained  to 
the  docility  of  a  little  child,  it  is  almost  the  same  whether  he  knocks  at  the 
door  of  the  hall  of  science  or  the  door  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  so 
soon  as  the  investigator  begins  to  imagine  himself  to  be  the  Creator,  the 
interpretations  of  the  scientist  are  mistaken  for  the  plan  which  was  devised 
and  the  agent  which  executes.  So  soon  as  the  order  and  unfolding  of  the 
plan  sets  aside  both  thinker  and  actor,  then  emerges  the  scientific  Titanism 
of  our  day,  which  dethrones  the  living  God  in  the  name  of  that  which 
enforces  his  right  to  be  honored  supremely  by  science,  as  the  self-existent 
thinker  and  self-moving  force  of  that  philosophy  or  that  faith  in  which 
all  science  stands. 

Modern  culture  exalts  to  the  highest  place  that  which  was  designed  to 
be  the  attractive  servitor  of  duty  and  self-sacrifice.  Culture  in  art  and 
manners,  in  speech  and  letters,  has,  in  the  progress  of  comfort,  wealth  and 


21 


ease,  become  to  many  the  chief  aim  of  existence  and  the  final  standard  of 
worth.  So  soon  as  it  usurps  this  highest  place  with  an  individual,  a  clique, 
or  a  community,  it  becomes  a  religion  —  a  religion  that  is  false  and  idola¬ 
trous  while  it  excludes  the  living  God  and  disdains  the  self-sacrificing  and 
man-loving  Christ ;  a  religion  which  tests  and  measures  the  aims  of  life, 
the  movements  of  society  and  all  individual  and  social  achievements  by 
fastidious  and  limited  standards  that  satisfy  neither  the  nobler  capacities 
of  man  nor  the  severer  judgment  of  God. 

It  can  be  no  secret  to  the  observer  of  our  times  that  these  antichris- 
tian  tendencies  are  no  idle  fancies,  but  potent  and  formidable  facts.  It  is 
equally  clear  that  the  arena  which  is  most  favorable  for  their  successful 
manifestation  would  be  a  college  or  university,  could  it  be  cleared  of  all 
religious  and  ethical  restraints.  On  such  a  field  would  present  themselves, 
in  the  fairest  forms,  the  most  insidious  temptations  that  can  assail  the 
noblest  minds, —  the  love  of  knowledge  combined  with  and  disguised  as  the 
love  of  power, —  ennobled  by  the  aspirations  of  duty,  and  dignified  by  the 
associations  of  competition  with  splendid  and  able  rivals.  Here,  too,  culture 
would  display  her  fascinations, —  confessed  to  be  divine,  if  anything  human 
can  be, —  lifting  man  above  sensual  and  sordid  gratifications,  and  needing 
neither  justification  nor  palliation  with  the  heart  which  can  be  touched  by 
beauty  or  grace,  whether  in  form  or  motion,  in  sound  or  color,  or  in  the 
harmony  of  all.  Culture  in  letters  and  speech  and  art  also  allies  itself  to 
science,  and  both  exact  leisure  and  freedom  from  sordid  cares,  while  they 
promise  to  engross  and  satisfy  the  heart  and  the  life.  Where  else  can 
there  be  needed  so  much  a  diviner  power  than  either,  as  in  this  very  home 
of  science  and  culture?  Who  can  be,  or  bring,  that  power  if  it  be  not  the 
'  Christ  who  has  been  honored  by  so  many  generations  of  Christian  scholars, 
as  they  not  only  stand  full  high  advanced,  as  inferior  to  none  in  science 
and  letters,  but  are  lustrous  with  that  peculiar  grace  which  is  known  as 
Christian  —  an  epithet  which  suggests  more  than  it  defines? 

Truth  compels  us  to  add,  in  conclusion  ( 5 ),  that  Christianity  must  control 
the  college  in  order  to  exclude  its  antagonist,  or  rival,  in  the  form  of  some 
false  religion.  In  the  present  state  of  speculation,  a  university  so  far  as  it 


22 


is  not  positively  Christian,  tends  toward  atheism  or  agnosticism.  One  or 
two  generations  ago  a  college  might  more  consistently  and  safely  than 
now,  dispense  with  religious  truth  and  influence  by  simply  leaving  alone 
all  questions  of  faith.  If  this  were  possible  in  other  days,  it  is  impossible 
now.  The  sciences  of  nature,  from  the  molecular  physics  which  discusses 
the  mysterious  semina  remra  up  to  those  fascinating  departments  of  nat¬ 
ural  history  which  seem  at  first  to  appeal  only  to  wonder  and  delight,  are 
no  longer  content  to  leave  theology  alone.  They  must  now  discuss  questions 
and  proffer  theories  which  force  their  disciples  to  ask  the  great  questions 
of  theism,  and  to  answer  them  by  yes  or  no.  History  and  criticism 
challenge  the  student  at  every  turn  to  think  and  say  whether  histor¬ 
ical  and  supernatural  Christianity-  is  any  longer  to  be  accepted  by  the 
reader  who  is  abreast  with  the  time-spirit.  Ethics,  politics  and  social 
science  suppose  a  decisive  position  to  be  taken  one  side  or  the  other  in 
respect  to  both  theism  and  Christianity:  even  elementary  treatises  on 
these  subjects  teach  a  positive  faith  or  as  positive  a  denial.  Each  of  these 
faitbs  has  its  cultus  —  the  cultus  of  humane  and  reverent  sympathy  with 
the  great  mass  of  men  in  Christendom  who,  after  some  sort,  have  trusted 
and  hoped  in  the  living  God ;  or  the  cultus  of  the  polished  Pharisee,  who 
plants  himself  at  the  corners  of  the  streets  and  gazes  at  the  church-going 
crowd,  as  he  looks,  if  he  does  not  speak  the  prayer,  “  O  Lord!  I  thank 
thee  that  I  am  not  as  other  men  are.” 

We  repeat,  that  atheism  and  agnosticism  are  religious  creeds  as  truly 
as  are  theism  and  dogmatic  Christianity.  Either  can  be  taught  directly  or 
indirectly:  directly,  by  formal  and  open  inculcation,  which,  in  either  case, 
may  defeat  itself;  or  indirectly  by  gentle  or  sarcastic  insinuation.  The  one 
or  the  other  can  be  unconsciously  taught  in  subtile  ways  of  impression, 
even  by  an  instructor  who  may  honestly  strive  to  withhold  the  slightest 
suggestion  of  his  faith  or  his  feelings.  Each  of  these  faiths,  in  the  germ  or 
ripened  fruit,  has  a  larger  or  smaller  representation  among  pupils  or 
teachers  in  every  considerable  college  in  this  land.  Holding,  as  we  do, 
that  positive  Christianity  is  intellectually  more  philosophical,  and  morally 
more  attractive,  than  either  atheism  or  agnosticism,  we  willingly  accept  the 


23 


alternative  to  teach  the  better  of  these  religions  as  earnestly  and  as  legiti¬ 
mately  as  we  may. 

As  we  have  thus  far  conceived  of  the  Christian  college  in  the  ideal, 
let  us  for  a  moment  imagine  one  that  had  become  thoroughly  unchristian 
or  antichristian,  and  follow  out  the  inner  and  outer  life  of  such  an  isolated 
and  self-contained  community  of  pupils,  especially  when  separated  from 
their  homes.  Such  a  college  would  have  no  place  of  common  worship. 
The  place  where  a  chapel  once  stood  has  become  vacant,  or,  if  the  edifice 
remains,  over  its  portal  is  written,  “To  us  there  is  no  God,  the  Father 
of  spirits ;  and  no  Christ  by  whom  we  know  him  ;  ”  or,  perhaps,  there  is 
emblazoned  the  inscription  that  describes  the  object  to  which  the  so-called 
piety  of  science  offers  its  dazed  and  complacent  worship,  “To  the  Unknown 
and  the  Unknowable V  Nor  prayer  nor  anthem  are  ever  heard  within  these 
inclosures  that  are  consecrated,  with  an  anchorite’s  rigor,  to  the  severe  aus¬ 
terities  of  a  narrow  intellectual  insight,  and  of  a  culture  to  whom  no  sin  is 
mortal  except  it  offend  against  decorum.  In  the  studies  of  such  an  institu¬ 
tion  the  fundamental  unities  which  science  presupposes  must  all  be  passed 
over,  lest,  forsooth,  they  should  raise  questions  concerning  God,  and  require 
answers  that  savor  of  positive  religion.  The  philosophic  range  of  such  an 
institution  must  be  narrow,  whether  it  forbids  us  to  speculate  about  God,  or 
whether  it  dogmatizes  that  only  women  and  priests  accept  a  God  who 
thinks  and  cares  for  men.  Whether  theism  or  agnosticism  is  the  prevalent 
creed  that  is  secretly  cherished,  each  is  held  on  narrow  grounds ;  for  theo¬ 
logical  declarations  are  not  tolerated  except  in  the  form  of  imaginative 
flights  that  are  admired  for  their  suggestive  imagery,  or  of  orphic  utterances 
that  fit  well  to  music.  Psychology  would  naturally  sink  into  physiology, 
because  spirit,  as  usually  conceived,  would  make  God  rational  and  even 
necessary,  and  would  also  provide  for  responsibility  and  immortality. 
Moreover,  spirit  has  of  late  been  pronounced  by  all  scientific  men  whose 
opinions  are  worth  considering,  to  be  but  a  function  of  matter ;  and  ethics, 
politics  and  social  science  are  now  best  explained  as  the  successive  growths 
of  that  omnipresent  and  all-producing  mechanism  which,  under  the  name 
of  development,  has  not  yet  been  branded  with  the  title  of  a  theological 
theory. 


24 


To  appeal  in  defense  or  enforcement  of  any  truth  concerning  God  or 
immortality  to  ^the  hopes  and  desires,  to  the  aspirations  and  longings  of 
the  heart,  or  to  the  guilt  and  fears  of  the  conscience,  is  to  commit  the 
sin  of  sentimentalism  which  the  intellectual  tone  of  this  house  of  spiritual 
death  will  never  pardon. 

Thank  God!  there  is  no  such  college  in  this  land,  because  the  people 
in  this  land  do  not  desire  such  for  their  children.  Even  in  those  insti¬ 
tutions  upon  which  State  necessity  imposes  narrow  restrictions,  or  in 
which  a  secular  theory  strives  to  be  logical,  the  Christian  convictions  of 
the  people  require  that  in  some  form  or  other  there  shall  be  a  more  or 
less  positive  recognition  of  God  and  duty  and  immortality  —  both  the  teach¬ 
ing  of  these  verities  as  solid  and  trustworthy  on  scientific  grounds,  and  the 
practical  response  to  them  in  services  of  Christian  worship. 

We  are  well  aware  that  all  our  arguments  and  representations  will  be 
confronted  with  this  comprehensive  reply:  “The  ideal  which  you  describe 
and  defend  cannot  be  made  real.  However  desirable  it  may  be  to  com¬ 
bine  in  the  same  society  an  ardent  zeal  for  science  and  culture  with  fervent 
religious  activities  and  aspirations,  these  elements  are  incompatible,  or,  at 
least,  they  cannot  be  provided  for  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  a  numerous 
and  richly-provided  college  or  university  such  as  our  modern  life  impera¬ 
tively  demands.  Your  ideal,  and  the  reasons  which  impel  to  its  realization, 
are  against  the  tendencies  of  modern  thought.  The  drift  of  modern  prac¬ 
tice,  as  founded  on  modern  experience  and  determined  by  the  more 
complicated  character  of  modern  life,  tends  to  narrow  the  sphere  of 
Christian  influences  in  the  formal  teaching  and  public  arrangements  of  our 
leading  colleges,  and  to  make  their  internal  spirit  more  positively  secular 
and  simply  intellectual. ”  That  this  tendency  is  inevitable,  and  that  the 
drift  cannot  be  resisted,  is  argued  from  the  following  reasons:  — 

i.  The  spirit  of  the  age  requires  that  our  investigations  should  be  un¬ 
biased  and  untrammeled  by  any  traditional  creeds.  Whenever  Christian 
doctrines  or  religious  interests  are  prominently  considered,  investigation 
cannot  be  absolutely  free.  The  fancied  tendency  of  a  theory  or  conclusion 
must  always  limit  the  freedom  of  thought  and  disturb  the  coolness  of  the 


25 


judgment.  Science  can  only  thrive  when  one  passion  is  supreme,  and  that 
passion  is  devotion  to  the  truth.  Religious  traditions  and  prejudices, 
whether  amiable  or  virulent,  are  inconsistent  with  or  hostile  to  this  devotion. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  science  thrusts  them  aside,  and  even  drives  them 
out  from  the  arena  on  which  thought  achieves  its  conquests. 

To  which  we  reply:  The  love  of  truth  is  then  acknowledged  to  be  the 
supreme  duty.  Science,  then,  appeals  to  the  conscience  for  help,  and 
conscience  is  a  religion  of  itself,  or  supposes  a  religion  which  enforces  its 
behests.  To  the  supremacy  of  duty,  many  interests  and  desires  are  opposed. 
The  Christian  faith  is  properly  defined  as  the  loving  belief  of  Christian 
truth,  because  it  is  true.  Moreover,  similar  passions  hinder  the  acceptance 
of  scientific  and  Christian  truth — as  the  love  of  tradition,  the  pride  of  opinion, 
a  received  watchword,  a  name,  a  party  or  a  school.  The  great  Leader  of 
the  Christian  Church  declared  :  “To  this  end  was  I  born,  a?id  to  this  end  came 
I  forth,  that  T  might  bear  witness  to  the  truth.  Every  one  that  is  of  the  truth 
heareth  my  voice  T  In  theory,  then,  there  is  no  conflict  between  the  two 
impulses.  Lord  Bacon  had  the  insight  and  the  magnanimity  to  declare 
that  a  man  must  become  as  docile  as  a  child  if  he  would  enter  either  the 
kingdom  of  science  or  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

We  do  not  affirm  that  all  Christian  scientists  and  Christian  universities 
are  wholly  faithful  to  this  spirit  in  their  search  after  either  religious  or  scientific 
truth.  We  are  quite  confident  that  all  scientists  are  not.  But  this  we  do 
affirm,  that  a  Christian  college  is  neither  very  enlightened  nor  very  Christian 
which  does  not  found  its  teachings  on  evidence;  which  does  not  give 
reasons  for  its  opinions;  which  does  not  challenge  the  opponents  of  its 
scientific  or  religious  creed  to  open  combat  on  grounds  of  reason ;  and  which 
does  not  confer  upon  its  students  the  duty  fearlessly  to  search  for  truth  of 
every  sort  in  the  fear  and  love  of  God.  Those  who  speak  so  contempt¬ 
uously  of  theologians  as  the  necessary  and  natural  antagonists  of  free 
inquiry  and  scientific  progress,  and  argue  that  Christian  earnestness  in  a 
college  or  university  must  necessarily  hinder  freedom  of  thought,  do  great 
dishonor  to  the  multitudes  of  Christian  believers,  among  the  dead  and  the 
living,  whose  scientific  researches  have  been  of  the  freest  and  the  ablest, 


26 


and  for  the  reason  that  they  have  been  conducted  in  a  conscientious  spirit 
under  the  eye  of  the  living  God.  Prominent  among  men  of  this  sort  was 
the  late  Dr.  Alexander  Duff,  who  was  as  distinguished  for  missionary  zeal 
as  he  was  for  the  use  he  made  of  Christian  institutions  of  learning  for  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  in  India.  The  splendid  success  which  attended 
the  Christian  seminary  which  he  opened  at  Calcutta,  as  contrasted  with  the 
secular  schools  of  the  government,  in  respect  to  educational  and  religious 
results,  is  an  instructive  example  of  the  educational  power  which  Chris* 
tianity  possesses,  and  of  which  our  American  pagans  might  well  take 
heed.  I  refer  to  him  here  as  a  fearless  lover  of  truth  of  all  sorts,  and  quote 
the  words  of  the  eminent  lawyer  and  publicist,  Sir  Henry  Maine  :  “  Next 

I  was  struck  —  and  here  we  have  the  point  of  contact  between  Dr.  Duff’s 
religious  and  educational  life  —  by  his  perfect  faith  in  the  harmony  of  truth. 
I  am  not  aware  that  he  ever  desired  the  university  to  refuse  instruction  in 
any  subject  of  knowledge  because  he  considered  it  dangerous.  When  men 
of  feeble  minds  or  weaker  faith  would  have  shrunk  from  encouraging  the 
study  of  this  or  that  classical  language  because  it  enshrined  the  archives  of 
some  antique  superstition,  or  would  have  refused  to  stimulate  proficiency  in 
this  or  that  walk  of  physical  science  because  its  conclusions  were  supposed 
to  lead  to  irreligious  consequences,  Dr.  Duff,  believing  his  own  creed  to 
be  true,  believed,  also,  that  he  had  the  great  characteristic  of  truth  —  that 
characteristic  which  nothing  else  except  truth  possesses —  that  it  can  be 
reconciled  with  every  thing  else  which  is  also  true.” — The  Life  of  Alexander 
Duffy  D.D.,  LL.D.,  II.  Vol.yp.  393,  Chap.  24. 

The  sectarian  spirit  in  theology  and  religion  we  know  is  sometimes 
fearfully  narrowing,  and  most  hostile  to  true  enlightenment  and  progress. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  sectarian  spirit  in  science,  which  blinds  the  mind 
to  both  facts  and  arguments  when  they  make  against  a  favorite  theory  or 
school.  The  feuds  and  jealousies  of  science  extend  to  both  principles  and 
men;  they  control  universities  as  truly  as  individuals.  For  this  reason 
motives  higher  than  the  purely  intellectual  are  not  only  useful,  but  often 
greatly  needed,  even  in  schools  of  pure  science.  So  far  as  Christian  motives 
are  concerned,  we  assert  with  confidence  that  of  any  score  or  hundred 


27 


seekers  after  scientific  truth,  those  who  are  devoutly  theistic  or  Christian  in 
their  faith  are,  by  far,  the  most  likely  to  be  fearless  and  open-minded  in 
receiving  and  asserting  whatever  is  new,  provided  it  be  true.  For  a  Chris¬ 
tian  believer  to  insinuate  the  opposite,  is  to  confess  the  narrowness  of  his 
own  conceptions  of  Christianity,  or  to  libel  the  liberality  of  those  of  his 
neighbor. 

2.  It  may  still  be  urged,  that  in  the  present  divided  state  of  Christendom 
a  college  which  is  positively  Christian  must,  in  fact,  be  controlled  by  some 
religious  denomination,  and  this  must  necessarily  narrow  and  belittle  its 
intellectual  and  emotional  life.  We  reply,  a  college  need  not  be  admin¬ 
istered  in  the  interests  of  any  religious  sect,  even  if  it  be  controlled  by  it. 
We  have  contended  at  length  that  science  and  culture  tend  to  liberalize 
sectarian  narrowness.  We  know  that  Christian  philosophy,  history  and 
literature  are  all  eminently  catholic  and  liberal.  No  class  of  men  so 
profoundly  regret  the  divisions  of  Christendom  as  do  Christian  scholars ; 
and,  we  add,  their  liberality  is  often  in  proportion  to  their  fervor.  While  a 
college  may  be,  and  sometimes  is,  a  nursery  of  petty  prejudices  and  a 
hiding-place  for  sectarian  bigotry,  it  is  untrue  to  all  the  lessons  of  Chris¬ 
tian  thoughtfulness  if  it  fails  to  honor  its  own  genius,  and  will  sooner  or 
later  outgrow  its  narrowness. 

3.  It  may  still  further  be  urged,  that  a  Christian  college  must  limit  itself 
in  the  selection  of  instructors  to  men  of  positive  Christian  belief,  and  may 
thus  deprive  itself  of  the  ablest  instruction.  We  reply,  no  positive  inferences 
of  this  sort  can  be  drawn  from  the  nature  or  duties  of  a  Christian  college. 
The  details  of  administration  are  always  controlled  by  wise  discretion.  A 
seeker  after  God,  if  he  has  not  found  rest  in  faith,  may  be  even  more 
devout  and  believing  in  his  influence  than  a  fiery  dogmatist  or  an  uncom¬ 
promising  polemic.  And  yet,  it  may  be  true  that  a  teacher  who  is  careless 
of  misleading  confiding  youth,  and  who  is  fertile  in  suggestions  of  unbelief, 
may,  for  this  reason  and  this  only,  be  disqualified  from  being  a  safe  and 
useful  instructor  in  any.  college,  whether  Christian  or  secular.  Personal 
characteristics  very  properly  enter  very  largely  into  the  estimate  of  the 
requisites  in  an  ennobling  and  successful  instructor;  and  among  personal 


28 


qualities,  those  which  we  call  Christian  are  esteemed  the  most  ennobling, 
except  by  those  who  are  ashamed  of  the  Christian  name. 

Last  of  all,  it  may  be  urged  that  a  Christian  college  may  become  the 
nursery  of  pietistic  sentimentalism  or  fanatical  fervor.  This  is  true ;  but 
there  are  other  sentimentalisms  than  those  which  are  inspired  by  Christian 
truth  and  the  Christian  history ;  and  there  are  other  fanaticisms  than  such 
as  flame  in  the  Christian  Church.  The  best  security  against  all  excesses 
of  this  sort  is  to  be  found  in  that  soundness  of  mind  which  earnest  Chris¬ 
tian  devotion  is  fitted  to  inspire,  when  instructed  by  solid  learning  and 
enlightened  by  science ;  when  refined  by  imaginative  literature  and  made 
graceful  by  consummate  art. 

We  conclude  as  we  began  —  that  a  Christian  college,  to  be  worthy  of 
its  name,  must  be  the  home  of  enlarged  knowledge  and  varied  culture. 
It  must  abound  in  all  the  appliances  of  research  and  instruction.  Its 
libraries  and  collections  must  be  rich  to  affluence.  Its  corps  of  instruct¬ 
ors  must  be  well  trained,  and  enthusiastic  in  the  work  of  teaching.  For 
all  this,  money  is  needed,  and  it  should  be  gathered  into  great  centers  — 
not  wasted  in  scanty  fountains,  nor  subdivided  into  insignificant  rills. 
Into  such  a  temple  of  science  the  Christian  spirit  should  enter  as  the 
Shekinah  of  old,  and  purify  and  consecrate  all  to  itself.  In  such  a  college 
the  piety  would  inspire  the  science,  and  the  culture  would  elevate  and 
refine  the  piety,  and  the  two  would  lift  each  the  other  upward  toward  God, 
and  speed  each  other  outward  and  onward  in  errands  of  blessing  to  man. 

Whether  a  Christian  college  shall  surpass  one  that  is  purely  or  chiefly 
secular  in  its  scientific  training  and  literary  culture,  must  be  tested  by  time; 
but  in  order  that  the  test  should  be  fair  the  advantages  must  be  equal. 
The  endowments,  the  appliances,  the  libraries,  the  museums,  and  all  else 
that  wealth  can  furnish,  must  be  similar  in  attractiveness  and  solidity.  The 
friends  of  each  must  give  to  each  an  enthusiastic  and  unwavering  support. 
We  do  not  contend  that  religious  zeal  can  be  a  substitute  for  scientific 
ardor;  but  we  do  urge  that  it  may,  and  will,  furnish  the  highest  inspiration 
when  directed  to  scientific  studies.  We  are  not  so  simple  as  to  hold  that 


29 


the  culture  of  the  religious  feelings  is  an  equivalent  for  the  training  of  the 
imagination;  but  we  do  contend  that  the  imagination,  when  fired  by  Chris¬ 
tian  faith  and  fervor,  has  reached  its  loftiest  achievements.  In  a  word, 
we  believe  that  the  Christian  faith  is  the  perfection  of  the  human  reason 
as  truly  as  a  necessity  to  the  human  heart,  and,  therefore,  the  essential  to 
the  highest  forms  of  human  culture. 

We  conclude  that  no  institution  of  higher  education  can  attain  the 
highest  ideal  excellence,  in  which  the  Christian  faith  is  not  exalted  as 
supreme ;  in  which  its  truth  is  not  asserted  with  a  constant  fidelity,  defended 
with  unremitting  ardor,  and  enforced  with  a  fervent  and  devoted  zeal;  in 
which  Christ  is  not  honored  as  the  inspirer  of  man’s  best  affections,  the 
model  of  man’s  highest  excellence,  and  the  master  of  all  human  duties. 
Let  two  institutions  be  placed  side  by  side,  with  equal  advantages  in  other 
particulars;  let  the  one  be  positively  Christian  and  the  other  consistently 
secular, —  and  the  Christian  will  surpass  the  secular  in  the  contributions 
which  it  will  make  to  science  and  culture,  and  in  the  men  which  it  will 
train  for  the  service  of  their  kind. 

If  our  ideal  holds  good  for  colleges  in  general,  it  emphatically  applies 
to  colleges  for  women.  The  indications  are  abundant  and  decisive  that 
the  spheres  for  woman’s  activity  have  already  been  multiplied  and  enlarged, 
and  that  in  order  to  fill  them,  her  education  in  science  and  letters  and  art 
should  be  made  more  varied  and  thorough.  It  will  be  agreed  by  most,  if 
not  all  of  us  who  are  here  present,  that  in  order  to  fill  these  spheres  of  more 
public  usefulness,  she  will  not  be  called  to  part  with  a  single  one  of  those 
graces,  each  of  which,  in  its  place,  and  all  united,  make  up  that  bond  of  per¬ 
fectness  which  we  call  true  womanhood.  No  man  who  is  competent  to  judge, 
will  care  to  question,  or  venture  to  deny,  that  in  every  branch  of  science, 
letters  and  art,  woman  is  able  to  achieve  eminent  success,  and  to  gather  rich 
enjoyment ;  nor  that  in  very  many  positions  of  administration  they  will  equal 
men,  nor  that  in  others  they  will  surpass  them.  We  may  not  forget  that  in 
practical  conviction,  sagacious  discrimination  and  responsive  sensibility, 
they  are  superior  to  men,  and  by  these  very  endowments  are  nearer  to  that 
worshiping  trust  which  becomes  religious  faith  so  soon  as  the  will  comes 


30 


under  the  law  of  duty,  and  the  soul  is  consecrated  as  the  dwelling-place 
of  God.  But  these  special  endowments  of  the  sex  expose  them,  perhaps 
the  more,  to  unreasoning  fanaticism  and  tenacious  bigotry  for  any  cause 
which  they  ardently  espouse,  be  it  religious,  social  or  speculative.  Hence, 
in  their  school  and  college  education,  with  all  else  which  gives  refinement 
and  culture  to  womanly  tastes,  they  need  the  well-rooted  habit  of  solid  and 
discriminating  judgment.  Whatever  the  sphere  of  our  educated  women  is 
to  be,  whether  in  the  household,  in  society,  in  science,  letters  or  art,  or  in 
more  responsible  public  stations,  the  quality  of  their  education  will  tell  more 
conspicuously  upon  their  influence. 

Shall  this  education  be  Christian?  and  shall  women,  as  heretofore,  be 
found  generally  in  the  ranks  of  faith  ?  It  is  not  certain  that  either  will 
be  true.  We  know  that  not  a  few  in  England,  and  some  in  our  own 
country,  have  become  conspicuous  before  the  public  for  the  open  abandon¬ 
ment  of  a  Christian,  and  even  a  theistic  belief,  and  for  the  able  and  ardent 
rejection  of  those  principles  on  which  the  hope  of  immortality,  the  sacred¬ 
ness  of  the  family  and  the  solidity  of  society  have  been  supposed  to  rest. 

We  have  all  shuddered  to  read  of  those  fanatical  women  who,  in  the 
days  of  the  Commune,  were  busy  in  distributing  among  the  dwellings  of 
Paris  the  agent  of  destruction,  and  in  kindling  it  with  their  own  hands, 
and  who  justified  their  madness  by  the  speculative  teachings  which  they 
had  learned  from  the  doctrinaires  of  their  school.  Ought  we  to  be  offended 
any  the  less  at  those  female  expositors  of  the  new  agnosticism  and  ethics, 
who  in  our  English  homes  play  with  fires  even  more  destructive,  whether 
for  their  own  speculative  delectation,  or  in  the  spirit  of  fanatical  propa- 
gandism  ?  Has  a  gifted  woman  no  power  for  mingled  evil  and  good  when, 
like  George  Eliot,  she  writes  under  the  mingled  influence  of  the  gospel  of 
hope  and  the  gospel  of  despair  ?  —  much  of  the  pathos  of  whose  tales  is  the 
effect  of  the  blended  lights  and  shades  of  her  earlier  faith  and  later  specu¬ 
lations,  in  the  boldest  of  which  there  lingers  the  plaintive  Christian  under¬ 
tone  which  still  resounds  in  her  heart?  If  anything  is  generally  agreed 
upon  in  respect  to  the  higher  education  of  women,  it  is  that  their  colleges 
should  be  Christian  homes. 


3i 


The  passing  traveler,  as  he  is  borne  quickly  by  this  spot  and  catches 
sight  of  the  gables  and  spires  of  this  stately  edifice,  is  told  that  it  is  a 
female  college;  and,  perhaps,  if  it  be  according  to  the  temper  of  its  in¬ 
formant,  he  is  informed  that  it  is  somewhat  too  religious.  But  what  if  he 
were  told,  and  it  were  true,  that  it  was  atheistic  or  antichristian ;  that  it 
worshiped  no  god,  and  decorously,  but  scientifically,  denied  the  name  which 
all  Christians  hallow  with  the  tenderest  and  most  elevated  associations  ! 
We  believe  that  this  will  never  be  said  of  Wellesley  College.  We  trust 
it  will  never  be  true  of  any  college  in  this  land,  but  that  each,  in  its  way, 
and  all  with  united  energy,  will  honor  Him  before  whom  every  knee  shall 
bow  and  whom  every  tongue  shall  confess. 

We  bring  our  congratulations  this  day  to  these  our  friends,  the  found¬ 
ers  of  this  institution,  to  whose  munificent  gifts,  followed  by  their  never- 
ceasing  thoughtfulness  and  prayers,  this  institution  owes  its  existence,  its 
prosperity  and  its  promise.  Rather  do  we  unite  with  them  in  ascribing  our 
thanks  to  Him  from  whom  all  just  thoughts  and  good  counsels  do  proceed, 
that  he  has  enabled  and  inclined  them  to  achieve  this  work  of  wise  and 
sagacious  benevolence. 

We  congratulate  its  new  benefactor,  also,  the  founder  of  Stone  Hall, 
who,  after  distributing  so  generously  of  her  wealth  for  the  promotion  of 
higher  Christian  education,  is  permitted,  this  day,  to  crown  these  varied 
gifts  by  providing  for  an  edifice  that  shall  tell  so  effectually  upon  the 
Christian  education  of  many  of  her  own  sex,  who,  we  trust,  will  be  ministers 
of  Christian  truth  and  Christian  letters  and  Christian  arts,  and  of  Christ 
himself,  in  our  country  and  throughout  the  whole  earth. 


' 


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I 


